


The Battle of New York

by MonPetitTresor



Series: Family Don't End With Blood [13]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supernatural, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Big Brother Tony, Crazy Sam, Hurt Tony, Post-Battle of New York (Marvel), Sam worries about Tony, The Avengers (2012) Spoilers, he watches the news
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 19:05:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12305706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonPetitTresor/pseuds/MonPetitTresor
Summary: Somewhere across the country in a crappy motel room, Sam turns on the TV only to find out just how close he'd come to losing his brother.





	The Battle of New York

Tonight was a bad night.

Ever since the wall in his head had come down, days and nights were put into two categories for Sam: Good and Bad. Good was when he was able to function okay, when he knew that Lucifer was just a hallucination, when he could actually go a little while without seeing or hearing him everywhere. On Good days, Sam could almost pretend that everything was all right, that he and Dean were okay and things were going to end up fine.

Bad Days, well…

They varied in intensity. Sometimes a Bad Day was simply being stuck listening to Lucifer yammer on at him, or watching him turn his food into maggots, or countless other little parlor tricks that he liked to use to mess with Sam’s head. Bad Days could be hours of reminders hissed in his ear that he wasn’t really free, that he was still down there with Lucifer and Michael, that he was nothing more than their little play toy that they liked to screw with. On those days, Lucifer liked to tell him how this whole thing had started out as Michael trying to be nice, growing a conscience after all the ways they’d tortured Sam, and he’d tried to give him a vision of his family to make him happy. Only, Lucifer couldn’t let him have happy things, could he? Plus, wasn’t it just _delicious_ to come in here and break it all apart like this! Better than any torture he’d managed on his own!

On those days it was really hard for Sam to tell what was real and what wasn’t.

Today had been one of those days and tonight wasn’t shaping up to be much better. Sam was seated on his bed in their latest motel room, legs crossed under him and his hands in his lap. His thumb was pressing almost constantly into the old wound in the palm of his other hand. The little jolts of pain weren’t making Lucifer vanish completely like he hoped. They were, however, keeping him at bay just enough that Sam could ignore him. He could tune out the voice in his ear at least long enough for Dean to get through his shower. His brother deserved to do at least that without having to worry for Sam.

Distraction was another good helper. That was why Sam reached out to grab the remote and turn the TV on. He was hoping some mindless TV would help drown out Lucifer’s whispers.

What he found was a distraction all right – just not like he’d been hoping for.

Every single channel was taken up with coverage on what appeared to be an actual _alien attack_ in New York City. Sam stared, stunned, his hand frozen around the remote, as the reporter showed images of what they were calling ‘The Battle of New York’ that had happened just hours ago. How had they missed this? There was a giant battle over New York and they’d _missed it_? Sam stared in growing horror at the images on the screen.

All of a sudden the devastation was broken up when the Hulk went soaring past the camera, smashing into another building, and a shield was flashing below him that had to belong to Captain America. The reporter was talking about the superheroes fighting against the alien invasion, but it wasn’t the aliens pouring from the sky that Sam focused on. Maybe he should have – he should definitely be worried about freaking _aliens_ – but what held his attention was the bright flash of red and gold that was soaring through the air with a goddamn _nuclear warhead_ on its back.

“Dean!” Sam’s hands gripped tight at the bedspread and he leaned towards the TV, his horror growing more and more. The remote lay forgotten on the floor. “Dean!”

The bathroom door snapped open and Dean came tearing out in just his boxers, a gun in hand and his expression hard as he looked around for the threat. Sam simply lifted a shaking hand and pointed at the TV. When Dean looked over, he did a double take before swearing. He dropped down onto the bed at Sam’s side, gun forgotten, and watched right along with him. “Son of a bitch. What is this shit?”

“Aliens.” Sam heard himself saying. He barely paid any attention to the fact that he was speaking. Even Lucifer was a low, easily ignored whisper behind him. “They’re… aliens were pouring out of the sky. Actual aliens.”

The camera shifted and it showed Tony flying up, up, towards a giant portal in the sky, and Sam sucked in a sharp breath. Oh, God, no. No, please, no. Please don’t let him…!

Sam didn’t realize that he was saying all that out loud. A firm hand settled on his shoulder and held tightly, keeping him grounded, yet nothing could take away the terror Sam felt as he watched Tony fly into a giant hole in the sky with a damn bomb strapped to his back. Everything in him wanted to scream at the sight – and then the hole began to close.

“Come on, Stark.” Dean was murmuring at Sam’s side. His hand had tightened and he was leaning forward, eyes locked on the screen. The both of them were frozen as they watched that hole slowly close and still there was no sign of Tony.

Everything inside of Sam was frozen as he watched that hole close, taking one of the most important people in his world with it – and then something caught his eye. “Look!” He pointed to the TV just as the camera zoomed in as best as it could on a lone, falling figure. Sam could barely hear the reporter talking about Iron Man falling from the sky beyond the pounding of his heart in his ears. Then the Hulk leapt onto the screen and Sam’s breath was punched out of him when he slammed right into Tony and caught him up in his arms.

“He caught him, Sammy.” Dean said. He gave Sam’s shoulder another squeeze and a shake. “Holy shit. He caught him.”

One thing caught Sam’s attention more than all that, though. The woman who came on the screen, saying “ _This happened just an hour ago. There’s been no report yet on whether Iron Man survived his fall. We’re all waiting eagerly for word on one Tony Stark’s condition_ …”

Sam practically fell off the bed in his scramble to get to his phone.

* * *

There wasn’t a part of Tony’s body that didn’t hurt. He was definitely hoping that his bathtub had managed to survive the attack on the tower. At the moment, the rest of it could fall into the pit for all he cared. He just wanted to be able to go and sink into his bathtub for at _least_ an hour. Maybe more. Maybe he’d just _live_ in there. Then again, that meant he was going to have to get up, and at the moment that was really the last thing he wanted to do. Hence why he was still sitting in the middle of this broken-down shawarma place with the group of misfits that made up their team.

A nice silence had fallen over them as they all sat there and ate. Everyone seemed content to just not talk. The only sounds around them were the sounds of crashes as some recovery teams started to make their way in. Soon, they’d probably get up and go help out. But at the moment SHIELD was making their way through and they were still securing things. Once that was done, the police would be let in and the Avengers would be let out.

They were all half asleep here, comfortable in the silence, and so it was a huge shock when that silence was broken suddenly by the sound of a ringing cell phone. Everybody looked up and then looked to Tony, the one who was ringing. “You still have an actual working phone right now?” Clint asked, surprised.

Tony was just as surprised as they were. He hadn’t really thought about the cell phone in his pocket. He was so used to carrying one with him everywhere, he usually didn’t even notice the weight of it anymore. Pulling it out, he stared down at it in bemusement, right up until he saw who exactly it was that was calling. There was an image of a golden retriever on his screen and the word _Puppy_. Thor, who was right by his shoulder, made a sound of amusement. “I was unaware your pets were capable of calling you. They must be far more advanced than I was led to believe.”

“Shit.” Tony said, fervently enough that all attention snapped to him even more than before. Instead of lazy curiosity, they were all looking at him with intent, and he couldn’t bring himself to care. “ _Shit_!” As quick as he could, he hit the button to answer the call and brought it up to his ear, already talking before he even had it halfway there. “Hey there, puppy, I was just about to call you!”

“ _Like hell you were._ ” Sam spat out. He sounded annoyed, but Tony heard the tremble in his voice, the ache in his words that made it clear just how little he was holding on at the moment. “ _I just, I just saw the footage on TV. Jesus, Tones. Jesus. You’re… you’re all right?_ ”

There was a slightly frantic edge to Sam’s words, and he kept flinching a little in the middle of it in a way Tony had come to recognize meant that someone else was talking to him. That fact made what was already going to be a difficult conversation even harder.

Tony pushed himself up from his chair despite the way it made him hurt. Though the team saw him wincing – and he wasn’t happy with that, didn’t want them thinking him too hurt, too weak – his voice was perfectly even without any signs of pain. “Calm down, pipsqueak. I’m all right. The footage made it look worse than it really was. Hulk caught me before I could hit ground. I’m okay.” There was absolutely no need to let Sam know just how close it’d been.

 _“You’re an asshole is what you are._ ”

“Aw, love you too, snookums!” As Tony moved away from the others he could hear a few snickers coming from them. Let them laugh all they wanted. He stepped a little further away and made his way out the front door. Despite the fact that there was no real sense of privacy right now – no telling how far some of the enhanced ones in there could hear – it gave him at least the illusion of privacy for this conversation. It allowed him to gentle his tone a little to one that very few people in his life got to hear. “I really am fine, kid. I promise. A bit banged up, no worse than you are after a day of work. Once I soak in a tub for a few days I’ll feel a lot better.”

He heard Sam draw in a ragged breath and blow it back out. “ _You’re safe?_ ”

“Yep! Big bad aliens are all taken care of. We’re just down to cleanup now, soon as SHIELD gives the go-ahead.”

“ _Aliens._ ” Sam let out a low chuckle. “ _Man, I can’t believe they’re actually real._ ”

“Everything you’ve seen and _this_ is what throws you off? You should see the one we have on our side. He’s pretty damn awesome with that hammer of his.”

Sam, smart guy that he was, figured that out right quick. “ _Thor_?” He said incredulously. “ _You’re talking about Thor._ ”

“Yep!” Turning a little, Tony snuck a look back inside where the team was still sitting silently, either unable to hear him or pretending that they couldn’t. “He reminds me a bit of your less cool brother. Which, speaking of – met _his_ little brother, too. He was the guy behind the whole steaming pile of insanity today.” And that was something he definitely wanted to talk to Sam about when they had some privacy and a secure connection set up by JARVIS. “He wasn’t quite like you’d expect. Nowhere near as cheerful or funny as rumors would suggest.”

The line went quiet for a bit and he heard a hint of muffled sounds that told him Sam was telling Dean a few things. A second later he came back and he sounded steadier, his mind obviously in ‘work mode’. “ _You know how stories go; they rarely get everything right. I’m sure it’s no big deal_.” Translated, he was going to look into it and didn’t want to Tony to worry about it right now. “ _I’m not worried about that right now, anyways. I’m more worried about you. You’re sure… you’re sure you’re okay?_ ”

What little strength that had seeped into Sam’s voice was gone now. He sounded scared once more, shaky, and so much like the terrified kid trying to be brave that Tony had first met.

Tony closed his eyes and tried to keep himself from showing just how much hearing that tone to Sam’s words affected him. Though he doubted it would help much, he walked just a little further away from his team. “I promise you, pipsqueak – I’m okay. Soon as I can I’ll fly out myself and show you, all right?”

“ _I’m holding you to that._ ”

It took a few more moments of careful reassurance mixed in with some light teasing to draw Sam’s voice back to a normal tone. Only then did Tony finally let Sam say his goodbyes. Once he hung up, though, Tony let his body slump back against the wall behind him and he shut his eyes. That conversation had taken more out of him than he really had to give. Lately, it seemed like a lot of conversations with Sam ended up like that.

Guilt hit him almost instantly for thinking like that. It wasn’t Sam’s fault! The kid’s head was so damn messed up it was a wonder he was able to function at all! If all he needed was some reassurance from Tony now and again – especially after seeing him almost die on national television! – well, it was the least that Tony could give him. It was also a whole lot less than he wanted to do. If it were up to Tony, the kid would’ve been here at Stark Tower with him while they tried to find a way to stop the damn Leviathan and fix Sam’s head. Then again, maybe it was good that he wasn’t here. If he had been, he would’ve found a way to involve himself in this fight, of that Tony had no doubt. And that was something Tony didn’t want to even think about.

When the hell had his life managed to get so insane? Accepting the supernatural was one thing. Now _aliens_?

Closing his eyes, Tony tried not to sigh. He also tried hard not to think about what he’d seen as he’d flown that nuke through that portal. If he let himself think about it he was going to end up giving in to the panic attack that he knew was just waiting in the wings.

Maybe he’d had the right idea while talking to Sam. Getting the hell away from here for a day or two might be a good idea. Once all of the shit here was dealt with and everything was squared away, he could grab the suit and try out his newest stealth mode and fly out to wherever his little brother was at. He could pay for a hotel room under some made up name – two of them, one for him and Sam and one for Dean – and take a couple days to just forget the rest of the damn world. Sure, the boys would be hard to convince, but Tony was betting he could do it. They could hole themselves up there and eat some good food, maybe have a Star Trek marathon. Debating which show was the best was always a blast. They could watch their shows, pig out, and not get out of bed for anything other than bathroom breaks.

Just thinking about it was enough to ease some of the tension in Tony’s shoulders.

Having a plan in mind gave Tony the strength to straighten himself back up and paste on the smile that he knew everyone expected to see. It let him lock away the panic and worry that were like lead balls inside of his stomach. He held on to that feeling as he went back inside and dealt with the people still eating their food. It stayed inside of him, helping him easily dodge their probing questions, keeping him steady as he had to deal with SHIELD once they finally cleared everything. As Tony dealt with it all, keeping calm on the outside, his mind held on to the single goal in his future, the one thing that was going to get him through all of this. It let him paste on his smile and be Tony Stark – Iron Man.

Soon enough, he’d get a chance to just be Tony, big brother. And the promise of that was enough to help him make it through the rest.


End file.
